Year Closed: 1931

The Lady Musgrave Sanitorium for Sick Children, in Shorncliffe, was built in 1884 as a convalescent home for children. The Sanitorium did not formally open until 1888. Lady Lucinda Musgrave was the first patroness of the Hospital for Sick Children, and personally secured the land at Shorncliffe, which was given in trust by the government. It was an extension of the Brisbane Hospital for Sick Children. One hundred and sixty-two children were accommodated at the Sanitorium in the year 1920. The Brisbane Hospital Board decided to close the Sanitorium in 1931.

In the nineteenth century, bayside suburbs such as Shorncliffe (and Sandgate) were seen as ideal locations for convalescence, because of prevailing ideas about health (including miasmic theories of disease). It was believed that recuperation from illness required fresh air, good ventilation, well-lit buildings, sea bathing, and outdoor enjoyment.

The sanatorium was also used as a place of rest and training for nurses from the Children’s Hospital and respite for families who had ‘sickly’ children.